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Cade exhaled a curse and met my gaze again. “It’s a sluaghna.”
“But there hasn’t been a sluaghna sighting in over a century,” Derrick said.
Cade shook his head. “Now that I know what I’m looking at, it’s obvious. There are fractures in her soul where it started eating her, Derrick. And no doubt those vines that attacked the safehouse were coming to…” he broke off and gave me an apologetic shrug, “Well, let’s just say he was trying to grab more of his meal.”
I shuddered and hugged my wounded hand. I wasn’t sure what was worse, the prospect of being something's meal or having my parts dismembered for sale on the black market. “Then, that means the warlock traffickers…”
“What better way to hide his eating habits than through a giant black market dealing in warlock pieces? Buyers aren’t looking for the souls, they’re looking for the skin, the hair, the bones, all the bits they can use in alchemy or spells,” Derrick said.
“Maker help us,” Cade said on a breath. “Montgomery Leslie is a sluaghna.”
“We’d best get back to the manor,” Derrick said. “I left Janice with Meredith and if Montgomery knows we’re on to him…”
Cade finished the thought, but we were already moving; “He’ll be looking to grab food for his escape.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
We kept a brisk pace through the forest, Derrick in the lead with Cade keeping to my right. My shoes squelched with every step and there was a shock of cold whenever my damp skirt brushed against my calf. It was entirely unfair that the Middling left you sopping wet. Still, I fought the discomfort away and tried to organize my thoughts.
I knew precious little about the sluaghna.
They were humanoid, of course. One might even think them warlocks, but the truth of them could be seen in the aether if you could get a look at them. Just as nature was neither good nor evil, but rather indiscriminate in its ability to kill both predator and prey – and indeed, driving both predator and prey into their respective goals – so too was a sluaghna. They viewed Bright creatures and humans alike with disdain, believed whatever consciousness we had was a fluke, a matter of nature choosing to wreak its havoc in new and strange ways.
And they ate both mortal flesh and the everlasting soul.
“They’re shapeshifters,” Derrick was saying as we hurried down the gravel drive. “He probably fooled Maureen into thinking him a werewolf by changing into wolf form.”
“But wouldn’t she have noticed if her husband was never in the were-form and only ever in wolf form?” I asked, choosing to stay at Cade’s side.
What trust there’d been between Derrick and me was tattered and frayed, and I doubted there were any words he could say to fix it. My gut squeezed, remembering the feel of his mouth on my own, the gentle caress of his fingers against my neck, and a warm flush crept into my face. Sternly reminding myself that it had been a charm, that it wasn’t real, that he had tricked me, I smoothed my torn dress and stared at the ground as we walked.
“I’m not certain how werewolves work on the day to day, but I think that’s a very good question for Maureen,” Cade said grimly. “How’s your hand?”
I glanced at the offending appendage as we started up the stairs into the manor. “It aches a bit.”
“The potion is wearing off then. I can get you some more and, assuming Sam has brought my spare kit like I asked, we can try to get that stone out now.”
Derrick glanced back at us. “Is that safe?”
Cade passed him to open the manor door. He stepped aside, sharing a pointed look with his partner as he held the door open. “We know who made it now. It’ll be better for Nora to be rid of it and then safely on her way home while we finish up here.”
I stopped on the threshold, ignoring the frown on Derrick’s face. “You can fix my hand?”
Cade’s expression softened and he gave me a little smile. “It’s just bones, Nora.”
“Melted bones,” Derrick put in.
Cade kept his gaze fixed on my face and I breathed a little easier, sensing the confidence in him as he said; “Sluaghna magic is closely related to what an earth summoner can do, only more potent. Do you know what the opposite of an earth summoner is?”
I stared at him for a moment but found the answer; “A water summoner.”
He winked at me, and I felt the tension in my shoulders begin to relax. He was the son of a nymph and a selkie, he had command of water in a way that a water summoner could only dream of. If anyone could combat this runestone, it was him.
“Once the runestone is out, I promise you’ll be as good as new,” he said.
As good as new. With my magic.
Hope spread through my chest, and I gave him a nod. I might have said more, but a voice floated out at us from the manor, “You know we’re trying to conduct interrogations in here, don’t you?”
